Nozomi, Planet B

Japan's Nozomi (for Hope; former Planet B) Mars orbiter
was successfully launched on July 4, 1998 with a M-V-3 rocket, and flew two
Lunar swingbys on September 24 and on December 18, 1998, and one Earth swingby
on December 20, 1998. It was scheduled to arrive at Mars on October 11, 1999,
but due to a problem in its propulsion system, got "insufficient acceleration"
in its Earth flyby and consequent course correction. A new orbit was
calculated, and after two more Earth swingbys on December 20, 2002 and
June 19, 2003, and a delay of more than four years, arrived in the neighborhood
of Mars in December 2003 with a re-scheduled orbital insertion on
December 14, 2003.

Unfortunately, the electric system of Nozomi as well as the S band antenna
suffered damage from a heavy Solar eruption in April, 2002, limiting the
communication possibilities with the spacecraft. The resulting problems in the
electrical system made the heating for the spacecraft propellant fail, so that
the propellant was frozen and unavailable for manouvering. Attempts to heat
the propellant with solar radiation failed to resolve this problem.

Eventually, a correction maneuver on December 9, 2003 failed, so that Japan's
space agency, JAXA, decided to abandon the mission. Nozomi was lifted into a
safe flyby orbit to avoid a crash of the unsterilzed spacecraft on the Martian
surface, and passed the Martian surface at a height of 860 km on December 14,
2003. It is now in a Solar orbit and remains in interplanetary space.